Ferndown Auxiliary Unit Patrol

Thank you for selecting information on
the Ferndown Auxiliary Unit and Operational Base in Dorset. The info below has come from our CIO for Dorset,
Dr Will Ward.

This page was last updated at 6:05am on
11/5/14

Research into this patrol and its training is ongoing. The information below is published from
various sources and is by no means conclusive. If information is not listed below
it does not necessarily mean the information is not out there but normally means our
researchers have not found it yet.

If you have any information on this patrol or can help with research in this area please do
contact us.

This patrol was a part of Group 1, which comprised patrols in the area surrounding Wimborne. Group Commander was
JRN Charter.

Currently unknown.

Name

Date of Birth

Occupation

Died

Sgt. John Geoffrey Tice

02/10/1907

Garage owner

1971

Cpl. Alfred Cecil Talbot

03/02/1908

.

.

Pte. Douglas Gabe

04/10/1901

Scoutmaster

.

Pte. E A May

09/04/1901

.

.

Pte. William Henry W Feltham

01/03/1903

Left July 1943

1993

Pte. P L Blick

10/12/1911

.

.

Mr Tice was the local Garage owner in Ferndown, the family business continuing to this day in the area. He had
attended Brighton College. His garage had the largest air raid shelter in the area on its ground floor. Mr Blick
was recalled to be a tall smart man. Doug Gabe was the local Scoutmaster both before and after the war, very
popular with the local lads who had suspected that he had been up to something during the war. A number of them
found the bunker after the war and cleaned it up to act as their den, clearing the vents so they could light fires
and cook inside.

It was Eddie Grubb and Charlie Hayter’s recollections of their time here that lead to the identification of the
site once again. Over the years it had become known as the Air Raid shelter or “Big Mac”. Lisa Dancer saw the CART
website and realised that the “Air Raid shelter” she knew from her childhood was rather bigger than any other she
knew and rather too far from housing to be of much use in this regard and made the link between the two sites.

Doug Gabe, still a scoutmaster in the 1950s. (copyright Brian
Davis)

The Wimborne group pictured at the end of the war, including the Ferndown
men. Doug Gabe standing in glasses to the left, holding his Tommy gun.

The OB was at Belle Vue, a section of woodland behind the Angel Inn.

There was a vertical entrance shaft with hatch cover and ring to open. Inside was a large (10x12ft) main chamber
with ventilation shafts. There was a 25-30 yard long escape tunnel with the exit hidden by trees and bushes behind
a bank.

After the war bits of the corrugated iron escape tunnel came to surface as children played in the wood.

The OB is (or was?) beneath this mound in what is now Poor Common Nature reserve. No remnants of the
structure could be found.

Currently unknown.

As a young lad, Charlie Hayter recalled 5 Home Guards turning up at Lion’s Holt where they were camping with
targets and two rifles. He and his friends were allowed to shot at the targets they had brought, as one of the men
was Mr Talbot, whose son was camping with them.

Unknown, but it is assumed that they had the standard weapons and explosives issued to all patrols.

At the end of the war, Doug Gabe started the large celebration bonfire in Ferndown with an explosion. Presumably
he had kept back one or two of his Aux Units “toys”.